I suppose you’d call this a progressive pickup: Gardner Dem Robert Rice wins. Thanks to poster cephme for the heads up. Guess that Kerry Healey magic didn’t work out so well. Sounds like Rice got pretty badly outspent, but still beat Dennehy 2-1.
Congrats to Rice, in any event.
Please share widely!
Rice winning is great news for this area of N. central Mass. The Republicans have been spending and working hard out here to try to pick up these St. Rep. seats. Folks tend to be more moderate to conservative up in this neck of the woods so I’m sure they are trying to take advantage of that.
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My own St. Rep. Prince of Darkness Robert Hargraves (R-Groton) worked very hard for Dennehy. And as you kindly linked to in this post, empty suit Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey beat the bushes for him too. I guess money isn’t everything.
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This is particular bad for Hargraves because he is supposed to be in command of a fairly organized machine out here. That apparently did not end up being as much of a factor as I would have thought. Which is good to know as we folks out here in 1st Middlesex work to recruit someone to run against him this November.
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The turnout was low (like most special elections), but it was nice to see Rice win with such a good point spread.
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The next big push out here should be to recruit a good candidate for Emile Goguen’s (“D”-Fitchburg) seat.